Improvement in street-railroad rails



c. T. HOPKINS. STREET-RAIL'WAY'RAIL, N 1 3o,z37, Patented July 25,1876.

221:1??? ibventfiw ILPETERS, PHOTQLITHOGRAPHE R, WASHINGTON. D O.

PAT-ET OASPAR T. HOPKINS, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT m STREET-RAILROAD RAILS.

Specification forming part 'of Letters Patent'No. 180,237, dated July 25, 1876; application filed J nne 2, 1876.

' To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, UASPAR T. HOPKINS, of San Francisco city and county, State of California,.have invented an Improved Ribbon- Rail; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanying drawings are sufficient to enable any person skilledin the art or science to which it most nearly appertains to make and use my said invention without further invention or experiment.

My invention relates to certain improvenientsin that class of rails whichare employed upon street-railways and it consists in constructing the rails with corrugations or indentations upon their outer edges, so that it will be easy for any vehicle to cross them at acute angles without the difficulty of sliding along the edge of the rail, as has heretofore been the case.

Referring to the accompanying drawings for a more complete explanation of my invention, Figure 1. is a perspective view of my rail. Fig. 2 is a transverse section or end view.

A is the portion of the rail upon which the tread of the car-wheel runs, and b is the depressed portion, which receives the flange. Upon the outer edge of the partA are depressions 0, made at certain intervals, so that when the wheel of a vehicle strikes the rail at an acute angle it will not slide along, but will rise upon the rail by reason of striking the inside of one of the notches, and thus it will be easy to pass over the rail at any time. The inside edge may also be provided with notches d; but, in order to assist vehicles to leave the line of tracks, where the wheels fit perfectly, it will be necessary to construct the track so as to stop the wheel without corrngating the inner edge of the part A, as this would interrupt the smooth movement of the car-Wheels. I therefore construct the part b with its inner edge rising slightly, as shown at e, and the depressions orcorrugations are made in this edge. The effect of this construction will be to cause theback portion of a wheel to run ,or bind upon this edge as soon asitis turned to leave the track, and, when it falls into the angular depressions to achieve the same result desired by me, but the protuherances involve the use of additional metal, and the sharpedges of the rectangular openings are injurious to wagon-tires.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-.

As a new article of manufacture, a railroadrail having curved depressions at intervals cutdiagonally into its outer upper edges, substantially as set forth.

O. THO. HOPKINS. Witnesses:

GEO. H. STRONG, CHAS. G. PAGE. 

